AQW 4947/17-22

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 17/06/2020
Answered On Date: 10/07/2020
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities (i) for her assessment of how the review of the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) was completed by the Housing Executive; (ii) what co-production and co-design was included as part of the process; and when her Department, in conjunction with the Housing Executive, will publish the review findings and any subsequent changes to the DFG application, process or support for applicants.

Answer:

I am aware that the Housing Executive examined the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) processes as part of its Build Yes programme which it concluded in 2018. The recommendations arising from the review of its DFG processes have mostly been implemented but the Housing Executive is still working through a transitional year, and therefore it is too early to measure formally the benefits of the changes.

As the new processes were only implemented in all Housing Executive Grants Offices for eight months prior to lock down, there has been insufficient time for the Housing Executive to assess a sufficient number of cases from start to finish using the new processes and IT systems. It is likely to be eighteen months before sufficient major and minor cases have been processed to provide a full evaluation of the changes.

However, the Housing Executive has advised that performance during 2019/20 has been encouraging, with 1,119 approvals achieved, higher than the target of 900.

In terms of co-production and design the processes were analysed by the Housing Executive’s Build Yes team in consultation with members of the Housing Executive’s Grants staff and management. This included interactions with external stakeholders, such as Occupational Therapists (who make the recommendations for adaptations) and customers.

The Build Yes team subsequently made recommendations to streamline/improve the processes which resulted in a number of amendments to the Housing Executive’s DFG processes and IT systems to streamline and improve the DFG delivery.

In terms of publishing the recommendations this was an internal review conducted by the Housing Executive as part of its wider Build Yes programme seeking to improve its services throughout the organisation. As such there were never plans or a requirement to publish the details of the review and its recommendations.